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The "First Kingdom" of the Burgundians

Burgundy as part of the Frankish Empire between 534 and 843

Burgundy is a region of Western
Europe which has existed as a political entity in a number of forms
with very different boundaries. Two of these entities have been
called the Kingdom of Burgundy, and a third
Kingdom of Burgundy was very nearly created.

Contents

First and second
Kingdoms of Burgundy

The territory ruled by the Kings of the Burgundians (an East Germanic tribe)
between the late 4th century and the 530s, when the Burgundians
were conquered by the Franks,
is sometimes called the First Kingdom of Burgundy.

The second Kingdom of Burgundy, also called the Kingdom of
Arles (alternatively spelled as Kingdom of Arelat), existed
from 933 to 1378. It occupied some of the lands of the former
kingdom of Middle
Francia, the central slice created by the three way division of
the Frankish Empire by the Treaty of
Verdun (843). It was created by the unification of Upper Burgundy
(which was centred in what is now western Switzerland, and included
some neighbouring territories now in France and Italy), and Lower Burgundy
(which covered a large part of what is now the south eastern corner
of France). This second Kingdom of Burgundy was absorbed into the
Holy Roman
Empire under Conrad II in 1032, as the Kingdom of
Arles. It was one of the three kingdoms within the medieval
Empire, the others being the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy. The
Kingdom of Burgundy or Arles gradually lost its territorial
integrity, and it ceased to exist in 1378, when the remnants were
absorbed by France.

The Burgundian lands, and the failed proposal to create a third
Kingdom of Burgundy

The House
of Burgundy was a dynasty that ruled the Duchy of Burgundy from
1032 to 1361, and the Free County of Burgundy from 1330, when the
wife of Eudes IV
inherited it from her mother, until 1361. It did not rule the
Kingdom of Burgundy.

From 1361 to 1477 both the Duchy of Burgundy and the Free County
of Burgundy were ruled by a cadet branch of the House of Valois
(see Dukes of Burgundy). By the mid-15th century
this dynasty also ruled most of the provinces in the Low Countries,
making it one of the most powerful ruling houses in Western Europe.
The territories of the House of Valois-Burgundy in
the Low Countries were never part of Burgundy proper, but the
combined territories of the ruling house are sometimes referred to
as the Burgundian Lands or the Burgundian Netherlands. However
all of these lands were notionally held by the House of
Valois-Burgundy as feudalvassals of either the King of France or the
Holy Roman Emperor. Duke Charles the Bold conceived the project
of combining his territories into a kingdom of Burgundy with
himself as its fully independent monarch, and even persuaded the
Emperor Frederick to assent
to crown him king at Trier. The
ceremony, however, did not take place owing to the Emperor's
precipitate flight by night (September 1473), occasioned by his
displeasure at the Duke's attitude.